(NewsNation) — Dr. Mehmet Oz, the doctor who oversees Medicaid and Medicare for the Trump administration, says the deal the president struck with Pfizer earlier this week showed his fearless nature to get things done.
“We were told it couldn’t happen,” Oz told “Batya.” The president was undaunted, didn’t care.”
Under the deal, Pfizer is committed to offering discounts for prescription drugs for Medicaid and offering a direct-to-consumer program. The company will also offer some of its drugs at a discount directly to consumers from a website operated by the federal government. The company would do the same with new drugs from Pfizer.
Two-time breast cancer survivor shares message of hope
“In his first administration, he tried to do it. And he laments the fact that he got a one-eighth of one-point benefit improvement in prices, and he thought that was a success. And he realized, we just have to blow the whole system up in a way that can be reconstructed more artfully,” added Oz.
The deal does not include most-favored-nation pricing for Medicare recipients or those with private insurance offered by an employer or through the health care exchange.
It is unclear which drugs will be covered and whether high-cost specialty medications will be included.
Trump has thoughtful ideas about challenging ACA: Oz
Oz says the Pfizer deal is just another example of how Trump is approaching the Affordable Care Act, which is designed to catch people coming off of Medicaid and help them receive commercial health insurance.
“It’s unfortunately filled with lots of flaws,” he said. “But there is no point talking about this program or any other ideas until we get the government back up and running.”
The government shut down earlier this week after Republicans and Democrats failed to strike an agreement about funding to keep it open.
FDA approves new generic abortion pill, drawing conservative fury
Republicans wanted Democrats to approve a plan to fund the federal government through most of November, but Democrats wanted to see provisions added, including the extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies and the overturning of Medicaid cuts tied to Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” legislation.
“We usually have a beehive of people running around doing things to help the American people,” said Oz. “That’s vitally important because some of these programs, like telehealth, for example — people live on these programs. They rely on them.”
Government shutdown purely political: Oz
Oz acknowledged that the government shutdown is a political statement for all the parties involved.
Programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid would continue, but customer service could be delayed due to potential furloughs.
New COVID variant ‘Stratus’ on the rise, what are the symptoms?
“When you shut the government down for political purposes, you hurt the American people,” he said.
“I think that’s the fundamental reality. The reality is the Democrats cannot possibly think we’re going to revisit a bill, the One Big Beautiful Bill, that we worked so hard and so thoughtfully to get through, to save Medicaid, to deal with the fraud, waste, and abuse that was sinking this beautiful, wonderful program that helped so many Americans,” said Oz.
